The Hausa relative continuative presents an ongoing, repeated, or state-like situation inside a construction that singles something out: a constituent question, a focus construction, or a relative clause. Its complete affirmative paradigm is nake, kake, kike, yake, take, muke, kuke, suke, ake. These are subject–TAM forms: each one packages subject agreement together with the relative continuative viewpoint before the lexical predicate.
All unlabelled forms are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa). Ordinary boko does not mark tone or vowel length. The label relative does not mean “past,” and it does not limit the paradigm to relative clauses introduced by da.
The complete affirmative paradigm
| Subject | Relative continuative | With aiki “work” | Plain continuative |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st singular | nake | ni ne nake aiki | ina aiki |
| 2nd masculine singular | kake | kai ne kake aiki | kana aiki |
| 2nd feminine singular | kike | ke ce kike aiki | kina aiki |
| 3rd masculine singular | yake | shi ne yake aiki | yana aiki |
| 3rd feminine singular | take | ita ce take aiki | tana aiki |
| 1st plural | muke | mu ne muke aiki | muna aiki |
| 2nd plural | kuke | ku ne kuke aiki | kuna aiki |
| 3rd plural | suke | su ne suke aiki | suna aiki |
| impersonal | ake | abin da ake yi | ana yi |
Second-person singular gender is obligatory: kake addresses one male and kike one female. Third-person singular similarly distinguishes yake and take. Impersonal ake leaves the human actor unspecified; English may translate it with people, one, or a passive.
Me nake mantawa?
What am I forgetting?
Wane bayani kake nema?
What information are you looking for? (to one male)
Ke ce kike karɓar baƙi yau?
Are you the one receiving visitors today? (to one female)
Wannan shi ne abin da muke jira.
This is what we are waiting for.
The ending -ke helps recognition, but do not treat it as a free particle attached to an English-style subject pronoun. Learn each form as a complete member of the paradigm.
Where the relative series appears
In a canonical constituent question, the wh-expression is singled out and the rest of the clause forms its background.
Me Amina take dafawa a kicin?
What is Amina cooking in the kitchen?
In a focus construction, ne/ce identifies the focused phrase and the relative form marks the background clause.
Bello ne yake tuƙa motar asibiti yau.
Bello is the one driving the hospital vehicle today.
In a relative clause, the property after da identifies the head noun.
Na kira mutanen da suke jiranmu a ƙofa.
I called the people who are waiting for us at the door.
Shagon da ake gyara kekuna yana gefen tasha.
The shop where bicycles are repaired is beside the motor park.
English uses wh-order, stress, a cleft, or a relative pronoun for these contrasts. It has no special relative-progressive subject paradigm. That is why a literal English-to-Hausa strategy often produces plain tana/yana/suna where standard Hausa requires take/yake/suke.
An overt noun does not replace the marker
The subject noun identifies the participant; the following subject–TAM form supplies agreement and viewpoint. Both are required in the full pattern.
Wace mota Salma take gyarawa yanzu?
Which car is Salma repairing now?
Rahoton ne kwamiti yake dubawa.
It is the report that the committee is examining.
Waɗannan su ne yaran da malamai suke koyarwa.
These are the children whom the teachers teach.
Feminine Salma controls take; grammatically masculine singular kwamiti controls yake; plural malamai controls suke. The gender or number of the fronted object is irrelevant. Standard Hausa can also reduce the full marker to invariant ke after a recoverable overt subject, but that does not make a bare verb grammatical: Me Salma ke gyarawa?, not Me Salma gyarawa?
Viewpoint is not English tense
Relative continuative keeps a situation internally open. The predicate and context decide whether English uses a progressive, a simple tense, or a state verb.
Me kuke yi yanzu?
What are you all doing now? (ongoing)
Wace hanya suke bi kowace safiya?
Which route do they take every morning? (habitual)
Wane littafi kike so?
Which book do you want? (state-like; to one female)
Me take rubutawa jiya da muka shiga ofis?
What was she writing yesterday when we entered the office?
Gobe, wane aiki muke yi da wannan lokaci?
Tomorrow, what work will we be doing at this time?
The marker does not change across yanzu, kowace safiya, jiya, and gobe. Hausa places the relative continuative relation before the predicate, while time adverbs and discourse locate the situation. Do not change only the lexical verb in an attempt to imitate English writes / was writing / will be writing.
Active and state-like predicates
With an active predicate, the open viewpoint often describes activity in progress: yake gyaran mota “he is repairing a car.” With a state-like predicate, English normally avoids the progressive even though Hausa uses the same relative series.
Wa yake sanin lambar asusun?
Who knows the account number?
Ita ce take da makullin ɗakin.
She is the one who has the room key.
Neither sentence means who is knowing or she is having in ordinary English. Active versus stative interpretation comes from sani and possession with da, not from a tense change in yake/take.
Negation neutralizes the affirmative contrast
Do not negate the affirmative relative forms by placing ba before them. Standard negative continuative uses ba na, ba ka, ba kya, ba ya, ba ta, ba ma, ba kwa, ba sa, ba a, normally without a closing ba. The special affirmative plain/relative opposition is neutralized.
Zainab ce ba ta aiki da dare.
Zainab is the one who does not work at night.
Waɗannan su ne injinan da ba sa aiki yanzu.
These are the machines that are not working now.
Exercises
Fill each blank with the full relative continuative form: (1) Ni ne _ kula da shagon yau; (2) Me _ yi? to one female; (3) Amina ce _ shirya taron; (4) abin da _ nema, with “we” as subject; (5) Ina _ sayar da tikiti?, with an unspecified actor. Answers: nake, kike, take, muke, ake. Then change item 3 into the neutral assertion Amina tana shirya taron and explain why the form changes.
Common Mistakes
1. Using the plain form in a canonical constituent question.
❌ Me Amina tana dafawa?
Incorrect in the standard fronted object question — tana is plain continuative.
✅ Me Amina take dafawa?
What is Amina cooking?
2. Switching to the plain form merely because the time is future.
❌ Gobe me kuna yi da safe?
Incorrect canonical fronted question — future time does not license plain kuna.
✅ Gobe me kuke yi da safe?
What will you all be doing tomorrow morning?
3. Dropping the marker after a noun subject.
❌ Wace mota Salma gyarawa?
Incorrect — the overt name does not replace the subject–TAM marker.
✅ Wace mota Salma take gyarawa?
Which car is Salma repairing?
4. Letting a fronted object control agreement.
❌ Wace mota Bello take gyarawa?
Incorrect — feminine mota is the object; masculine Bello is the subject.
✅ Wace mota Bello yake gyarawa?
Which car is Bello repairing?
5. Negating an affirmative relative form.
❌ Su ne ba suke zuwa ranar Lahadi.
Incorrect standard negative-continuative marking.
✅ Su ne ba sa zuwa ranar Lahadi.
They are the ones who do not come on Sundays.
Key Takeaways
- The full paradigm is nake, kake, kike, yake, take, muke, kuke, suke, ake.
- It marks open situations in canonical focus, constituent questions, and relative clauses; it is not a past tense.
- A noun subject is followed by the agreeing marker: Amina take, Bello yake, malamai suke.
- Time and aktionsart determine the English tense and active or state-like translation.
- Negation uses the negative continuative series, not ba + an affirmative -ke form.
Related Topics
- Relative Continuative PronounsA2 — Use nake, kake, kike, yake, take, muke, kuke, suke, and ake for ongoing or habitual situations in focus, questions, and relative clauses.
- Continuative PronounsA2 — Use ina, kana, kina, yana, tana, muna, kuna, suna, and ana for ongoing, habitual, and state-like situations in neutral Hausa clauses.
- Subject Marking after an Overt NounA2 — Keep the required Hausa subject–TAM marker after names and full noun phrases, and make it agree with gender, number, and person.
- Plain and Relative TAM FormsA1 — Choose plain Hausa completive and continuative forms for neutral clauses, and relative forms for focus, constituent questions, and relative clauses.
- Relative Time and Time AdverbsA1 — Use Hausa TAM viewpoints with time adverbs that anchor an event in the past, present, or future.
- Continuative Meaning and Ongoing EventsA2 — Understand how the Hausa continuative gives an inside view of unfolding, repeated, and still-open situations rather than marking one English tense.